I really like them, I take them portable and I think they have a great sound. Intimate, smoother, and a frequency response tuned for mainly musical pleasure, but still with great detail and imaging, and while intimate great soundstage depth. Not too hard to drive but do like a good amp. Comfort is surprisingly good imo. Comes with something that looks like a camera bag to carry them around in lol
Interesting. They are very expensive and not something I’m interested in at first for obvious reasons. But I’m curious to hear about some of the very high end choices and the benefits they provide. I did note that in a separate thread you noted that you still like to grab your 58x for certain use cases, which I assume is true for all the equipment you currently own. How much specificity to do have in your choices of headphones for certain applications? Is it as granular as a certain song or album, or is it more genre and listening use case?
Honestly it depends. All of the stuff I currently own fills a role, and if something I happen to get fulfills it better or there is overlap, I will sell something off to correct that. I really like to pick around and choose for my mood, situation, and what I listen to. I don’t spend 15 minutes with something and then swap it out like a madman, it just depends on what I’m doing
I’m just obsessed lol, you don’t need to get to where I am to enjoy yourself lol. I’m just a special kind of stupid
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@M0N What we do without you? You just go out of your way to help these people every time. You da man! 
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Well if I ask enough questions someday I’ll be able to pass on that information and help someone new out too
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And that’s why he’s a mod… lol
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My 1st setup was/is HD58X and the ifi nano black label dac/amp. I was instantly hooked and in love with the sound quality. Mon, is absolutely correct, the 58X is a great starting point for the cost.
I now have a couple different dac/amps. The ifi nano gives a bit warmer sound. My Micca Origen G2 is a cleaner sound. I am finding out that I enjoy a cleaner/analytical sound best. Each person has a different idea of what sounds good to them.
Getting a decent headphone like the 58X then trying a few different dac/amps is a good way to learn what sounds great to you.
Is changing amps and or dacs a better way to assess that or is a different set of headphones a valid method too? Which has better resale if you wanted to recoup some of the original cost?
Different dacs and amps can change your sound, but it’s somewhat minimal. Upgrading the headphones will yield the biggest difference. I would just stick with a good dac and amp and go from there personally
IME a lot of people tend to prefer bright setups at least initially, at least if they aren’t overly treble sensitive, I think it’s because they tend to seem more detailed if you haven’t done a lot of listening. I think darker tunings are more of an acquired taste.
The transducers in the headphones are by far the biggest contributor to the color of the sound.
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So there’s a couple of different technologies right? Dynamic, planar magnetic, and maybe some I’m less familiar with. Do headphones using similar tech produce somewhat similar sound?
Sometimes, there are common sonic traits associated with the driver types. A common one is that electrostatic headphones don’t really have good timbre and don’t really sound real to life (they sound different because of the technology)
Another common one is when people say “planar bass”, the bass on a planar headphone is typically more linear extending with great speed and detail compared to the more rounded response of a dynamic headphones bass
I don’t think that because a headphone is dynamic that they all sound the same, but typically you can tell if something is dynamic or planar or etc based on some sonic traits
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The driver certainly has an effect, but you can get warm or bright sounds from any driver.
The attribute I most attribute with planars is speed and transient response rather than a specific frequency response, though they do tend to have more bass extension.
Dynamics cover such an array of technologies it’s harder to generalize.
What does this talk of speed mean for this use case? I’m not quite understanding. So certain drivers have certain advantages and disadvantages and characteristics. Is one type superior in certain applications?
Personally l prefer to look at a headphone as a whole and not really pay attention to driver types too much. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types. For the use case applications that will depend on the individual headphone.
The speed of a headphone is typically the transient response or how fast the driver can move and how quickly sounds begin and decay. Electrostatic headphones are typically extremely quick, resulting in high detail and separation, and also good imaging. That being said, their fast decay makes things sound unnatural at times, and also they typically don’t have the most impactful bass response because their membrane sacrifices thickness so impact for speed and detail
Speed really refers to the impact of a sound, for example the impact of say a snare drum. But it’s broader than that, it’s describing how changes in sound start and stop.
In the end it’s all personal preference.
I’m currently using a planar closed back, and a dynamic open back…
They are very different, but I am enjoying both.
So I’ve learned so much just from this thread and browsing through others. One of the most important points seems to be that this field is incredibly subjective. One person may prefer their entry level set over a much more expensive high end set for reasons entirely their own. Certain things like build quality and qc can be counted on, but until I wear a set and listen I’ll won’t know what to really expect. I think I’m going to try out M0N’s suggested starting gear (atom, d10, hd58x). As far as I can tell it’s pretty much the minimum price for entry as a set (which is good cause I probably shouldn’t be spending the money anyway…)
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Absolutely correct. It’s really all preference. You just have to find what you like and go from there. Getting experiences for your self is crucial to figuring out where you want to go. And the end goal is enjoyment, so anything you can do to better that is the right choice. What works for someone else may not work for you, and that’s completely fine, just go with what you think you would enjoy the most based on what you know 
There are actually cheaper options, but I think the 58x and the amp dac stack would be the largest improvement for the price. Some of the cheaper options would be an improvement, but not as large
note on the atom. the line outs are preamps IIRC and not line outs so depending if his speakers where powered monitors or not he’d have to daisy chain the stick differently .
You you could just max the speaker amp and treat it the same if you got a passive amp
Or you could split the output of the d10 if needed pretty easily